Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf yesterday pushed oil back above US$100 a barrel, as US and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.
Iran is trying to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the US and Israel to halt their bombardment, which started the war on Feb. 28.
Iran’s president said its attacks would continue until Tehran gets security guarantees against another assault, indicating that even a ceasefire or US declaration of victory might not halt the conflict.
Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has promised to “finish the job,” even though he claimed Iran is “virtually destroyed.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah militants launched 200 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel while sirens rang out and loud booms from the interception of Iranian missiles could be heard in other areas. Israel launched another wave of attacks on Tehran and in Lebanon, where 11 people were killed.
The UN refugee agency said that up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the ongoing war, and most have fled from Tehran and other major cities toward the north of the country or rural areas.
At least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, it said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday wrote online that for the war to end, the world would need to recognize Iran’s “legitimate rights,” pay reparations and offer guarantees against future attacks.
In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Amid speculation that the US might target Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s main oil terminal, Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on social media that any attempt to take Iranian islands would “make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.”
With traffic in the strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 9 percent to more than US$100 a barrel, up 38 percent over what it cost when the war started. Prices have swung back and forth in the past few days, at one point surging to about US$120 a barrel.
Two tankers were ablaze in an Iraqi port after a hit by suspected Iranian explosive-laden boats.
Images verified by Reuters as having been filmed from the shore of the Port of Basra showed ships engulfed in massive orange fireballs that lit up the night sky, after the attacks, which Iraqi authorities blamed on Iranian boats. At least one crew member was killed.
Hours earlier, three other ships had been struck in the Gulf. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp claimed responsibility for one of the attacks, on a Thai bulk carrier that was set ablaze, which it said had disobeyed their orders. Another container vessel reported being struck by an unknown projectile near the United Arab Emirates.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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